More than 200 killed in stampede near Mecca

AT LEAST 200 people have been killed and 400 hurt in a stampede of pilgrims during the annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

Rescue operations were underway, the civil defence service said on Twitter, after the stampede in Mina near Mecca, where hundreds of thousands of pilgrims were taking part in the last major rite of the Hajj.

The stampede occurred on the first day of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice.